


Seeking Solace

by TheCaptain (BlueElectricFish)



Series: Doctor/Jack Stories [5]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, But also, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-18
Updated: 2012-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-14 13:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueElectricFish/pseuds/TheCaptain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been a long time since he had been in Cardiff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeking Solace

Jack took one more step forward, into the busy streets of Cardiff. He watched sadly as people busily rushed past, chattering to themselves or texting or listening to music. His mind was a flutter as he looked at where the Torchwood institute would have been, where it should still be, where it wasn't. His heart was pained and he wished, perhaps now more than ever, that it would stop, forever. There was something though, a twinge even, in the back of his head, a twinge that said to him:

"Not yet Jack, there's still something else…something you have to do." And of course he had to listen to it, because it was his something in the back of his head.

So, as he stepped out of a café, he looked up at the sky, sighed deeply, trying to rid himself of some sadness through breath.

It had been a long time since he had been in Cardiff and even longer since he had visited the old building. He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated and worried before shaking it off and walking forward.

The cold, crisp air and the hard ground brought back fond memories that brought back sad memories. He noted how much Cardiff had changed, the air was now cycled, due to the significant lack of foliage to be found on Earth at the time, There were, if possible, more people flocking the streets, all with more outrageous and risqué appearances than before, which was an expected change to be made in over 200 years. For instance, compare the 1700s and the 1900s. And that was not even to scale of the change from 2010 to somewhere (for Jack had lost count after all this time) around 2250.

In these times, most people wore clothes that were considered completely unacceptable in the early 2000s, things like garter belts and fishnets were worn for work attire under short, leather or plastic shorts and a cropped shirt. Men would wear thin fitting rubber tops and pants that showed everything. Not that Jack was complaining in either direction, but the whole thing just made him look like a prude. He knew what he looked good in, and rubber was not the answer. So, like always he would mill around in leather pants that were acceptable enough, but not, quote end quote "cool", and a white shirt or a blue button up, like always, like old times. The jacket however, his signature article of clothing had been left behind, had been taken, not long after the last time he smiled.

The clouds were white and soft and the sky was a cold blue, the kind that it gets in the winter, so bright, yet so cold. Jack made his way past the old exit, now just an ordinary stone on an ordinary walkway, surrounded by ordinary people. He sighed again, walking past faster, trying not to think about it, and trying not to remember. But it wasn't working, he felt tears coming through, and he felt his chest tightening, but he didn't…no, he couldn't make a scene here, not in front of Tor-. He stopped, he breathed in deep, and he reminded himself that it was gone.

But, none-the-less, he hurried, quickly, to a park or somewhere he could be away from the building.

When he arrived in the near a field, of some sort across from a high-tech cybernetics building, which was another thing he tried not to think about anymore, he fell silently onto the ground against an electricity pillar. And then he cried, cried silently, not even choking a little bit, he just looked up at the cold sky and he allowed the tears to fall down his face. His mind whirred around everything, around all the things that had happened, all the things he had done. He couldn't be too sad about Ianto anymore, he often tried to reason to himself, it had been 200 years, he would have been dead already anyways. But for some reason, it would never work, because there was one thing. Ianto would have lived, without Torchwood, he would have lived. There would never have been poisonous air, there never would have been anything, and Ianto would have lived. Longer at least, he would have lived until he was 106. Jack often pretended, imagined what Ianto's life would have been without Torchwood.

He would have been married. He would have had children, grand children, even great grand children. He would have lived in the country. He would have been an executive assistant. He would have been happy. He would never have met Jack. They would never have kissed. They would never have had that conversation in the office while tracking down bombs left by John. They never would have caught that pterodactyl, Jack would never have commented on his scent. They never would have been in love. And Ianto would have been happy.

Jack sat there, pretending, imagining, and the clouds shifted, they moved until it was dark, and much, much colder. It was night when Jack heard it, it was a painful noise that brought up every good memory of before Torchwood and painted them on giant billboards in his mind, it was a noise that made him smile, sniffle and wipe his face. He stood up, if this were the reunion, or first meeting, as one could never know, he would look as he did the last time. He would look happy and flirty and he would smile. Oh, how he would smile.

He watched with deep anticipation as a foot stepped out from the box, as a leg and a hand and a body appeared. It was a grinning boy, with black hair, and a boxed jaw, a gorgeous jaw, he had bright eyes and a thin frame, not long and thin like before, but a geeky thin, a high school thin. The boy was wearing clothing that suited him, in their oldness, like the scent of an old book, you just keep breathing in and in. A classic, too-short pants and boots that made his feet look big, a jacket where the cuffs didn't quite reach his wrists, with tan patches on his elbows. He wore, and this was most definitely his most distinguishing article, a bright red bow tie that eked "college nerd" but had an air of cute innocence.

Jack expected for the door to shut, for him to turn to him, for him to squint, perhaps puzzled, for him to stare, shocked, aghast. Flabbergasted. Jack imagined that he would like that word, based on his appearance. Jack imagined a gleeful reunion, or meeting, as Jack was still not quite sure.

What Jack failed to imagine was red hair and pouty lips peeking out from the doors, green eyes scanning their surrounding and then a smile as the entire body of a young woman, Scottish, stepped from the box and smiled at the boy. Jack watched as, even further a young man brashly rushed out, running into the girl and smiling at her, hugging her around the middle. Jack felt relieved, though he wasn't quite sure why, as the boy scanned the surrounding area, his eyes skipping lightly around, and didn't pay much attention to Jack himself.

Jack could hear the conversation lightly; the boy was rambling, which caused Jack to smile to himself, a real, genuine smile. The girl was snickering and then made a witty comment and the other two looked at her, before the second man started talking to the first man and saying something clever. The boy looked slightly down trodden before he bounced back, walking backwards and chattering at the man. Then the girl said something, she had stopped, she was looking at Jack who was looking back at them.

"Oi!" The girl called out, Jack was right, Scottish, she waved at him and Jack found himself growing nervous. She began to approach him, the second man following quickly behind, and the boy only realizing that they had gone after they were half way to him, and then he followed, ran mostly, to catch up.

Jack tried to steady himself, stay still, to smile, to seem surprised, to be relieved, though there was less pretending on the latter. The girl ran up to him, tired.

"Can you tell us where we are?" She asked, smiling. Jack breathed in, he was ready for this. And so, first he smiled, flirty, sexy smile.

"Of course, you're in Cardiff, sometime in the late 2200s." He reached out his hand, "I'm Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?" She gave him her hand and she smiled back, just as flirty as the second man caught up behind her.

"Well, Captain, I'm Amy Pond," She winked at him, the man looked at her, about to interrupt

"She means Amy Williams." He said, raising his left ring finger, which showed a bright, golden ring. She looked at him.

"No," she said, "I mean Amy Pond, Rory, Ay-mee Pah-nnn-duh." She articulated, smiling at him. He sighed.

"Right, right, whatever." The second man, Rory, looked slightly defeated.

"Anyways, Captain, how can you not know what year it is? You live here." Amy stressed, suspicion practically radiating from her eyes. Jack simply shrugged and turned around as the boy approached. His chest tightened.

He was much better looking up close, his skin was flawless and pale. Ebony hair sprawled out in every direction, swooping around his face in an almost cartoon-esc way. Jack swallowed hard as his eyes traced his thin shoulders and down, to his chest. Most of his body was covered by clothing, unflattering clothing, but Jack could see enough to know, he could picture perfectly every muscle, and he could only, deep in the back of his mind, wish to actually see every single one of them. The boy was, perhaps on closer inspection, a young man, though Jack knew perfectly well that he was much, much older than he looked. And Jack would know.

The young man looked up after gasping quickly for breath, his eyes were bright and yet, old. This made Jack smile to himself.

"What are you guys doing over he-" He stopped; his gaze had landed on Jack. His breath hitched and his eyes widened. Jack could almost see the air thicken as Amy and Rory looked at the young man expectantly. They stared at each other for what could have been a millennium, before the man caught his breath.

"J-jack?" He asked, as if trying to assure himself that the face in front of him was real.

"Hey, Doc." Jack said, smiling, walking forward. The boy, the Doctor, just watched, he had an odd face, a mixture of shock, sickness, grief and joy. Jack reached out, wrapping his finger around his shoulder, his arms around his back; he hugged the younger man tightly.

"Doc, you know what?" Jack asked, not yet pulling away.

"What?" The Doctor asked, his arms hanging, dead at his sides. Jack felt his eyes begin to water up again, and he began chanting "Not in front of him, not now, not in front of him" in his mind.

"You're younger than me now…" he whispered, "I can tell." The Doctor looked surprised; he frowned and wrapped his arms around Jack's back.

"I missed you Jack, it's good to see you," he muttered. Jack smiled and pulled back from him.

"I left for a while, I couldn't be here, that was when you, when I saw you, in the bar." Jack looked at him, the Doctor nodded. Amy and Rory were standing quietly near by, Amy staring intently at the two and Rory's gaze shifting from Amy to Jack to The Doctor and back to Amy.

"I should, um, introduce you guys," The Doctor smiled at Amy and Rory.

"Amy, Rory, this is my old, dear friend Jack, and Jack, this is Amelia, er, Amy Pond, and her lovely husband, Rory Williams." Jack smiled at The Doctor. Amy grinned.

"Now he's Rory Pond, though," she said, wrapping his arm around his shoulder. Jack nodded knowingly.

"Pond is a great name he said," smiling a bit, just like old times. Amy blushed a little.

"Enough of that now." The Doctor said, pouting a bit, which was new. Jack raised his eyebrows at him.

"I was just giving her a friendly compliment." Jack said defensively, smirking.

"I don't mind, really." Amy said smiling, Rory gave her a look. She grinned back at him, giving him a quick kiss on the nose.

"Anyways, Jack, do you want to come with us…we're…wandering really, but still, if you want to, while we're in Cardiff…I mean…" The Doctor stumbled on his words a little bit. Jack smiled.

"Sure thing, Doc, wouldn't miss it." He said.

"Actually, Doctor, me and Rory decided we were going to go on a date while we were on earth, you know, nice night and everything…so…" Amy said, eying Rory. The Doctor sighed, shrugged and grinned.

"Sure, that'll give Jack and I a good chance to catch up…it…it's been a while." The Doctor looked at Jack, as if for reassurance.

"Sounds good, Doc." He said, the smiles getting a little harder each time he flashed them, and he had to wonder, was he smiling too much? How much did he smile before? It had been so long.

Amy smiled at the two and took Rory's elbow in hers and pranced off, her hair flapping in the cool wind. Suddenly she turned back.

"Don't do anything dangerous, and don't go poking things with sticks!" She called out, using her free hand to wave at the two before continuing to drag Rory behind her.

The Doctor and Jack stood in silence for several minutes after the couple had disappeared. The wind pushed ripples through the grass, Jack felt his hair moving from his face.

Jack had aged only a little since the last time he had seen The Doctor, his eyes were much older now, and he was beginning to get a little bit of gray in his once dark brown hair, his mouth was gaining around the corners, probably caused from the lack of smiling. He looked, if The Doctor had to choose, tired, very, very tired.

"It's been years Jack." The Doctor said to him, turning to face him. Jack gave him a cool look, his happy face slipping for a moment.

"It's been more than two life times, Doc, for an extremely healthy person with no enemies," Jack looked off to the other side of the field "for me though, for me, Doc, it's been 23, 23 life times, 22 deaths, Doc." The Doctor looked at Jack, he could feel pain almost radiating from him, and he felt guilty.

"You're right, Jack, you're older than me now, by several hundred years." He said, obviously from a complete lack of anything else to say. Jack looked back at him and smiled, this time it was real, this time it was relieving and it made him feel as if, for that moment, he was back with the Doctor and with Rose and that nothing since then had ever happened. And in that moment, smiling, he cried. He broke his chant that had still been going in his mind and he looked at the sky, and then back at The Doctor, and he cried.

"Jack?" The Doctor said, concerned, his hands reaching out to pull Jack into an embrace. Jack's smile grew.

"You don't even know how much I missed you." Jack said, pulling The Doctor's chin up to his, pulling the younger man into a deep kiss. As they pulled away, The Doctor smiled.

"I think I do."

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably my favourite fanfiction I've ever written of all time ever.  
> So...yea.


End file.
